Assessment Score Reports Must Get Better!
Two relatively easy changes in states’ assessment score reports can go a long way toward helping users understand the results.
Read MoreCategory: Large Scale
Test Security: Expanding Our Ideas to Support Score Integrity
Test security has typically focused on preventing, detecting and acting on irregularities. But it should also support fairness and equity.
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Through-Year Assessment: The Importance of Score Reports
Score reports are crucial to a through-year assessment system. We interviewed users of Montana’s new system to see how they interpreted and planned to use information from score reports.
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“This Test Is Instructionally Useful.” Where’s the Evidence?
Companies often say their assessments are instructionally useful, but they rarely provide evidence to support those claims.
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Assessment Consequences Matter: A Look Back at RILS 2024
Our annual conference asked an important question: How do we minimize the unintended negative consequences of assessment for individuals and systems?
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Shifts in Student Enrollment: Should They Affect Test Score Interpretations?
Schools that experience pronounced enrollment shifts should consider their impact when interpreting achievement patterns over time.
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Instructionally Useful Assessments: Don’t Tell Us—Show Us
Education leaders and vendors claim that many assessments are “instructionally useful.” Such claims must be highly specific, and supported by evidence.
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Assessment Data Masquerading as Instructionally Useful Information
Which kinds of tests provide information that helps teachers adjust their instruction? We outline 10 key features of instructionally useful assessments
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What We’re Up To: Center Presentations at NCSA
We’re giving a bunch of interesting presentations at the National Conference on Student Assessment in June. Here’s a rundown of what we’re doing.
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Peer Review: Can Emerging Programs Meet the Requirements?
Through-year and other novel test designs face challenges in peer review. Three changes by the U.S. Department of Education could improve the process.
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The Future of Assessment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Google’s recent release of Gemini showcases AI’s potential to reshape educational assessment. We must be open to these changes, while monitoring and managing their risks.
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Do We Really Need to Test All Students Every Year?
We can reduce testing in schools without sacrificing meaningful annual reports on students’ learning.
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Three Common Misconceptions About State Assessments
Experts shed light on key aspects of state testing: comparability, proficiency, and instructional utility.
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Can We Reduce Testing in K-12 Schools?
State testing has long been criticized for many reasons. We undertook a study to examine what tradeoffs might be necessary to reduce the footprint of state testing. Here’s a preview of our early findings.
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Consider Backward Assessment Design
If an assessment is meant to help teachers get insight into student learning and adjust their instruction, test designers must start with the end in mind.
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Building Innovative Assessments in an Era of Accountability
After Georgia pulled out of a federal assessment pilot, the state’s testing chief reflects on the policy changes necessary to support real test improvement.
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Ready or Not: AI Is Changing Assessment and Accountability
Advances in artificial intelligence are transforming assessment and accountability. We explore the risks and opportunities of AI in 10 areas of K-12 work.
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Through-Year Assessment: A Radical Renegotiation of the School Accountability Contract
Many states are considering replacing their year-end tests with through-year assessments. But this change would impact states’ implicit accountability contracts with schools.
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